A cartridge for use with an embossing tool having self-loading tape feed mechanism

ABSTRACT

A cartridge containing embossable strip material for use with an embossing tool, the cartridge having a tangential extension, a resilient tab urging the strip material against a surface of the extension thereby permitting only undirectional forward movement of the strip material, and guide means engageable with the tool and allowing fore and aft movement of the cartridge to thereby move the strip material toward the embossing station of the tool.

United States Patent McMahon CARTRIDGE FOR USE WITH AN EMBOSSING TOOL HAVING SELF-LOADING TAPE FEED MECHANISM John McMahon, Livermore, Calif.

Dymo Industries, Inc., Emeryville, Calif.

Filed: July 26, 1971 Appl. No.: 166,185

Related U.S. Application Data Division of Ser. No. 875,467, Nov. 10, 1969, Pat. No. 3,637,060.

Inventor:

Assignee:

U.S. Cl 242/55, 206/52 R, 226/151 Int. Cl B65h 17/44, B65h 75/02 Field of Search 197/6.7; 226/92,

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Lotsch 197/6.7

July 3, 1973 3, 127,989 4/1964 Travaglio l97/6.7

Primary Examiner-Louis R. Prince Assistant Examiner-John M. Jillions Attorney-Harris & Zimmerman 5 7 ABSTRACT A cartridge containing embossable strip material for use with an embossing tool, the cartridge having a tangential extension, a resilient tab urging the strip material against a surface of the extension thereby permitting only undirectional forward movement of the strip material, and guide means engageable with the tool and allowing fore and aft movement of the cartridge to thereby move the strip material toward the embossing station of the tool.

3 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures Patented July 3, 1973 3,743,196

INVENTOR JOHN Mc MAHON ATTORNEY A CARTRIDGE FOR USE WITH AN EMBOSSING TOOL HAVING SELF-LOADING TAPE FEED MECHANISM This application is a division of application Serial Number 875,467, filed Nov. 10, 1969, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,637,060.

BACKGROUND, FIELD OF INVENTION This invention pertains to an embossing tool and more particularly concerns a self-loading means for feeding a tape or strip of plastic embossing material from a supply cartridge to and through such tool.

BACKGROUND, PRIOR ART Hand-operated embossing tools of the type shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,006,456 Souza; No. 3,083,807 Travaglio; No. 3,091,318 Carboni; No. 3,091,319 Sanders et a1.; and No. 3,133,485 De Man, each include a manually operable knob connected to suitable tape feed rollers through which the distal end of a coil of tape must be fed when a new supply of such tape is placed in the tool. The knob is then rotated by the fingers of an operator to bring the forward portion of a strip of embossing material to the correct position at an embossing station in the tool. It has been deemed desirable to provide for this preliminary feeding of the strip material by some means or manner that would eliminate the manually tape feeding rotation. By so eliminating this step, speed and ease in starting the strip material in an embossing tool would be substantially increased.

SUMMARY The present invention is achieved in a hand-held, hand-operated embossing tool by providing a mechanical linkage between a cartridge having strip material coiled therein and the trigger mechanism that effects the embossing operation so that the entire cartridge is retracted a precise distance away from the embossing unit station as the trigger is squeezed manually; and during such retraction of the cartridge the end portion of the strip material, which extends outwardly of the cartridge, is restrained by a one-way catch pawl from corresponding movement away from the embossing unit. In this manner a precise length of strip material is pulled or fed out of the cartridge. Release of the trigger will cause the cartridge to be pulled forward to its former position and in so doing the end portion of the strip material extending outwardly of the cartidge is moved forward on toward the embossing unit a precise amount.

Repeated operation of the trigger, which is also used to operate the embossing unit, causes continued incremental advancement of the strip material to and through the embossing unit in the embossing tool.

Additionally, the arrangement is such that when a new cartridge is placed in the tool, it is only necessary to have the free end of the tape coil extend ouwardly from the cartridge. Then, by operation of the trigger, the tape end will automatically be engaged and advanced to the embossing station, without any manual feeding of such end into the tape drive means.

The features of novelty that are considered characteristic of this invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims.

The organization and method of operation of the invention may best be understood from the following description when read in connection with the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a side cutaway view of an embossing tool according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial view of the rear portion of the embossing tool of FIG. 1 showing details of the operation of the present invention in one position of the trigger mechanism.

FIG. 3 is a partial view of the rear portion of the embossing tool of FIG. 1 showing further details of the operation of the present invention in another position of the trigger mechanism.

FIG. 4 is an end view of the embossing tool of FIG. 1 looking in the direction of view lines 4-4 of FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The embossing tool 10 of the present invention includes a first or right hand body portion 12, and a second or left hand body portion 14. Each of the body portions may be formed from a single piece of material such as by casting or molding of metal or strong plastic material. The two body portions are then fitted together, as best shown in FIG. 4, to enclose the other mechanisms of the tool as will now be described.

The forward end of each body portion is formed with a pin or stud receiving opening 16; each opening 16 faces or opens toward the other opening on the other body position. In FIG. 1 only the opening 16 associated with the right hand body portion is shown.

The lower portions of each body portion are provided with a trigger receiving cutout as best shown in FIG. 1 by the dotted line or edge 18 which shows the edge of the trigger receiving cutout for the right hand body portion 12.

A trigger member 20, shown best in FIG. 1 as being hollow and open at its top portion, has a pair of pivot studs or pins 22 (only the right hand stud is illustrated in FIG. 1) extending outwardly from respective opposite sides of the trigger member near its forward end and fit into the corresponding openings 16. The trigger member is thus pivotable about the openings 16 in the plane of the tool as shown by direction arrow 24. Stop lugs 26 formed on the rearward end or each side of the trigger member 20 engage a corresponding stop member 28 provided in the inner portion of the body portions 12 and 14 near the rear of the trigger receiving cutouts for limiting the clockwise movement of the trigger member 20 (as viewed in FIG. 1).

An embossing die engaging lug 30 is provided on the upper portion of the trigger member so as to engage with selective ones of the plurality of character dies on a rotatable die wheel 32 when the trigger member is squeezed or fully operated in the counterclockwise direction (as viewed in FIG. 1).

The forward portion of the trigger member 20 is provided with a cutout at its lower or bottom portion as best shown in FIG. 1 by left hand edge 34 of the trigger members cutout. A tape or strip cutter lever 36 is disposed within the trigger members forward end and pivoted on the same axis as the pivot axis of trigger member 20.a stop lug 40 at the extreme forward edge of the cutter lever engages with the extreme forward walls 42 of the body portions 12 and 14 to limit the clockwise movement (as viewed in FIG. 1) of the cutter lever. A cutter bed or anvil 44 is formed on the upper forward end of the cutter lever 36 for movement into engagement with embossed strip material that maybe disposed in a strip path directly beneath a pair of cutter knives 48 disposed on a mounting bracket 50 when the cutter lever is squeezed or manually actuated in the counterclockwise direction, as shown by direction arrow 52.

A spring mounting post 54 is formed on the inside of the right hand body portion 12. A trigger member and cutter lever biasing spring 56 is mounted on the post 54. The rearward end of spring 56 bears against the top of a lug 58 on the trigger memer while the forward end of the spring 56 bears against the top of a lug 60 formed on the rearward end of the cutter lever 36. The force or bias of the spring 56 is such as to releasably or yieldably bias both the trigger member 20 and cuter lever 36 in their clockwise direction (as viewed in FIG. 1). It can also be observed that the trigger member 20, and the cutter lever 36 are movable or pivotable independently of each other.

A mounting bracket 50 extending from the forward end of the body portions 12 and 14 to a position above the rearward end of the trigger member 20 is suitably fitted in appropriate receiving slotsformed in the body portions- A circular embossing disc 32 is mounted on the middle portion of the bracket 50. Details of the embossing disc and its cooperation with the lug are not necessary to understanding the present invention and no furthat discussion is made of the disc here except to point out that embossing strip or tape material is fed in a path of travel between male and female dies of the disc as will be described below. Details of the structure and operation of the disc 32 may be found in any of the U.S. patents mentioned above.

The rearward end of he bracket 50 includes a downwardly projecting arm or section 62, the lower end of which is provided with a rearwardly projecting arm or platform 64.

A resilient pawl or embossing strip engaging member 66 is mounted on the upper surface of the arm 64 and slopes in the forward direction. The extreme upper end of the pawl 66 is spaced beneath a strip bearing platform 68, formed by lateral protrusions provided on the body portions 12 and 14, by a distance just slightly greater than the thickness of the strip material 70 to be fed through the tool as described below.

The rearmost end of the body portions 12 and 14 defines a rearwardly directed opening 72 through which a strip material cartridge 74 may be inserted, the material being contained in the cartridge in coil form as best illustrated in FIG. 2 of the drawing. The design of the cartridge and its structural and functional co-operation with portions of the tool hereinafter described comprise an important portion of the present invention, so some description will first be made of the cartridge itself.

The cartridge 74 is preferably formed of plastic having opposed side walls 76, a rear wall 78, a top wall 80 and a bottom wall 82. The side walls are separable, such as by a hinge joint 84 permitting a coil of strip material to be placed therebetween about a central post 86 extending from one of the walls. An opening 88 is provided in the other wall circumscribing the post. A pair of horizontally spaced ribs 90 are provided on the exterior surface of each wall on both sides of the opening 88 for a purpose to be presently explained, and extending forwardly from the center of the cartridge is a bracket 92 whose forward distal end is provided with a pin 94, extending laterally outward from the plane of each wall and lying along the longitudinal axis of the ribs. Subjacent the bracket 92 the cartridge has a curved opening 96 terminating at the bottom wall 82. Slot-like openings 98 are also provided in side walls 76 adjacent the rear wall for viewing the amount of strip material in the cartridge. The top wall of the cartridge is provided with a tangential extension 99 terminating in general vertical alignment with pin 94. A tab element 100 extends forwardly and upwardly from bracket 92 and its upper end is positioned adjacent the the lower surface of extension 99 in such a manner as to resiliently urge the emerging strip from he coil tc be forced against the extension in a tangential disposition to the coil. The angular relationship of the tab permits the strip to be withdrawn from the cartridge, but effectively prevents contra movement into the cartridge.

Returning to the rear body portions adjacent the opening 72, the opposed inner than 12 and 14 are provided with horizontally extending rails 102 defining a channel 104 therebetween extending to the rear end of the tool. When the cartridge 74 is inserted through the opening '72, the pin 94 and the ribs will slide in the channel 104, and the cartridge will be restrained against movement in the tool other than in a fore and aft horizontal direction.

In placing the cartridge into the tool, the supply end of the embossing material may extend past tab in underlying relation to the extension 99 and terminate at the forward end of the latter. The tab, as above explained, will permit pulling or withdrawal of the material so as to feed the same to the embossing station. Extending rearwardly and upwardly from the lower end of cam slot 106 is a cam surface 108 normally positioned in the path of the pin 94 of the cartridge.

Insertion of the cartridge 74 into the rear opening 72 of the tool 100, as shown in FIG. 1, causes the pin 94 to bear against the cam surface 108, raising the trigger member and permitting further insertion of the cartridge into the tool. Manual squeezing or operation of the trigger member 20 in a counter-clockwise direction, while still pushing inwardly on the cartridge 74, brings the lower open end of cam slots 106 into alignment with the cartridge pin 94, the pin entering the lower end of the cam slots as best shown in FIG. 3.

Removal of squeezing force on the trigger member 20 permits the force of biasing spring 56 to return the trigger to its clockwise most position as shown in FIG. 2. As the trigger member 20 thus returns to its normal clockwise most position, the sloped cam-slot 106 acts on the pin 94 to futher pull the cartridge 74 fully into the tool 10. Of course, as the cartridge is pulled fully into the tool, the extension 99 and the strip material 70 lying subjacent the same will be positioned between the flexible pawl 66 and platform 68.

Now, to advance the strip material from the cartridge, squeezing or manual operation of the trigger member 20 in the counterclockwise direction will cause the sloped cam slot 106 to push rearwardly against the cartridge pin 9 and move the cartridge rearwardly in the tool 10 by a precise incremental distance as illustrated in FIG. 3. If, at this time, there is strip material 70 disposed in proper embossing position with respect to the disc 32, further squeezing of the trigger member 20 will cause embossing of a character on the strip material in the conventional manner. However,

such further squeezing of the trigger member does not cause further rearward movement of the cartridge since the pin is no longer being pushed by the cam slot.

As the cartridge is moved rearwardly in the manner above described, it is important to note that the upper edge of pawl 66 which already urges the strip material against the lower surface of exterior 99 will prevent corresponding rearward movement of the material. In other words, the tape or strip material remains stationary while the extension 99 moves rearwardly, sliding over the tape. If desired, and as indicated, further pressure of the pawl against the tape may be effected by rocking the pawl in a clockwise direction by causing the upper portion of cam 108 to engage the forward suface of the pawl. This latter procedure is not essential, since in most circumstances it has been found that the forward slope of the pawl prevents the relative rearward withdrawal of the cartridge extension while holding the strip material stationary. When the trigger is released, forward movement of the cartridge, as above explained, causes the strip material to advance with the cartridge. in this latter connection, it is important to note that tab 100 assists in the forward movement of the strip material with the cartridge. Without such a device, the material could remain stationary relative to the tool and merely recoil itself in the cartridge.

Upon release of squeezing force on trigger member 20 the cartridge pin is once again engaged by the cam slot and the cartridge 74 is once again advanced by a precise distance into the tool, causing further advancement of the protruding end of strip material into and through the tool, in the same manner as described previously.

It can thus be appreciated that there has been shown and described an improved and novel embossing tool which includes a minimum number of moving parts, and such parts as are included provide for a unique strip feeding and advancing means in an embossing tool.

I claim:

1. A cartridge for containing a coil of embossable strip material and dispensing the same generally tangentially from the cartridge towards and into an embossing tool, said cartridge incluing a pair of opposed side walls and an upper tangential extension extending forwardly and along the under surface of which said strip is dispensed, said side walls having diametrically extending tool engaging guide means on the outer surfaces thereof parallel to said extension, and a front wall defining a resilient tab extending upwardly and forwardly and defining an acute included angle relative to said extension, the upper edge of said tab continuously engaging the lower surface of said material and resiliently urging the same against the under surface of said extension and thereby permitting only unidirectional forward movement of said material relative to said cartridge, and said guide means being engageable with said tool and permitting fore and aft movement of the cartridge relative to said tool.

2. A cartridge as defined in claim 1 in which said guide means includes a raised rib.

3. A cartridge as defined in claim 1 including an element extending forwardly of said tab along the axis of said guide means and including a tool engaging pin extending normal to the plane of said side walls, said pin being engageable with said tool for effecting said fore and aft movement of the cartridge relative to the tool. 

1. A cartridge for containing a coil of embossable strip material and dispensing the same generally tangentially from the cartridge towards and into an embossing tool, said cartridge incluing a pair of opposed side walls and an upper tangential extension extending forwardly and along the under surface of which said strip is dispensed, said side walls having diametrically extending tool engaging guide means on the outer surfaces thereof parallel to said extension, and a front wall defining a resilient tab extending upwardly and forwardly and defining an acute included angle relative to said extension, the upper edge of said tab continuously engaging the lower surface of said material and resiliently urging the same against the under surface of said extension and thereby permitting only unidirectional forward movement of said material relative to said cartridge, and said guide means being engageable with said tool and permitting fore and aft movement of the cartridge relative to said tool.
 2. A cartridge as defined in claim 1 in which said guide means includes a raised rib.
 3. A cartridge as defined in claim 1 including an element extending forwardly of said tab along the axis of said guide means and including a tool engaging pin extending normal to the plane of said side walls, said pin being engageable with said tool for effecting said fore and aft movement of the cartridge relative to the tool. 